such frost-work around thera, having paid particular attention ; while at least 

 fifty specimens of tlic Ciiiiila examined were so ornamented. 



We naturally s]ieculate as to tiie cause. On tastinjj the ice, no aroma was 

 perceptible ; the root niauifcsted a vigorous younp 1)U(1 under frrouiid. 



Plants, in perminatintr, liave the power of gcneratirifj^ heat. That the atmo- 

 sphere absorbs caloric from bodies, and deprives them of fluidity in the form of 

 vapor, is well known, and this vajior, congealed, we call frost. This heat is evinced 

 by the more speedy melting of snow, when in contact with their leaves and stems, 

 compared with what is lodged upon inorganic bodies, provided the preceding frost 

 has been sulTiciently permanent to cool those substances thoroughly. 



Mr. Hunter has tested this fact by the rise of the thermometer ; and Lamarck 

 mentions an e.xtraordinary degree of heat evolved about the time the Arum macu- 

 latum bursts its envclo])ing sheath. This is the case with our common Indian 

 turnip — the Arum triphyllum also. 



Though this may not be observable by our sensation of feeling, we are not to 

 sn))pose it absent ; even the thermometer oidy enables us to judge of the state in 

 which the caloric is, with relation to surrounding bodies, without regard to its 

 quantity. 



That vegetation is not wholly suspended, however cold, as some suppose, is 

 clearly proven by the experiments of Hales and Du Ilamel ; but there is a regular 

 and gradual progress till the returning warmth of spring gives a degree of velocity 

 to the juices, rendering their development more vigorous and apparent. The 

 power of cold on vegetables is well known, and, though the frosts of severe win- 

 ters are, on the whole, more injurious to vegetation than those of spring, yet the 

 latter are productive of more extensive damage, because their effects are evident 

 almost every year. Frosts act more powerfully on ground newly cultivated, on 

 account of the vapors continually ascending from such soil. Trees recently cut, 

 also suffer more than others from spring frosts. Hence, likewise, light and sandy 

 soil are thus more frequently damaged than tough land, though both maybe equally 

 dry. 



Although it has beeh generally believed that frost meliorates the soil, and espe- 

 cially clay lands, yet, as ice contains no nitrous particles, such improvements can 

 only be of a transitory nature, by enlarging the bulk of some moist soils, and 

 leaving them more porous for some time after the thaw ; but when the water has 

 exhaled, the ground becomes as hard as before, being compressed by the incumbent 

 weight of the air. 



To conclude, for the benefit of some I will add, that Mr. Baum found, by im- 

 mersing quart bottles, filled with newly-distilled liquors, into a mixture of pounded 

 ice and sea salt, for six or eight hours, the spirit i)roved as grateful to the palate 

 as that which had been kept for several years. Geoffroy remarks that simple 

 waters, also, acquire a more agreeable flavor after having been for some time 

 exposed to the effects of cold. The effects on beef, poultry, &c., are ki^own to 

 everybody. 



[Dr. Darlington, in his Flora Cestrica, says of the Cunila : " In the begin- 

 ning of winter, after a rain, very curious ribbands of ice may often be observed 

 attached to the base of the stems — produced, I presume, by the moisture of the 

 earth rising in the dead stems by capillary attraction, and then being gradually 

 forced out horizontally, through a slit, by the process of freezing."] 



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